- [Interviewer] What's your dad like?
- What do you mean?
He would call up and say,
"Why you not tell me about this before?"
He'd pull up to my house, ask me to come outside, and
probably punch me.
(laughing)
My name is Slava, I'm from southwest Russia,
from Siberia, from Omsk.
I was christened as a Russian Orthodox person.
I went to church maybe once or twice.
So the first time for my christening, the second time
I can't really remember why I went there.
Then by the time I reached the UK I think I was
a Protestant Christian by then.
I was on the church services committee at school
and singing in the choir and everything else.
The thing that attracted me most to Islam, and I repeat this
time and time again because
everybody asks me the same question,
is that it makes sense.
Not only overall, but at that specific point in time,
it just made perfect sense to me.
It wasn't the most pleasant of times even though times were
actually good, I went through different financial stages
with my family, going through life and at that point in time
it was probably at its peak, it was the highest time
things were good, but it was also the worst time
for me looking back.
And I got to a stage in life where I just thought
this is not possible, I just cannot keep doing this
time and time again, night after night, my studies were slipping,
everything else was just, it was just going backwards.
Being in London around that time, it was 2005, 2006ish,
so it was after the London terror attacks, and obviously
the 2001 events, the media was savage about Islam generally.
And I knew for a fact that it simply cannot be.
You cannot be painted in such a picture
where you have the complete extremes.
It's only extreme here or extreme there.
It's got to be somewhere in the middle.
I'm quite a stubborn guy and when somebody says,
"Don't do something," I find 99 ways of trying
to prove them wrong.
So I sat down and I wanted to find out what
the religion was actually about.
What I found most interesting is that there was never really
pressure to become Muslim, it was just a whole lot
of information being thrown at you.
So from trying to experience Ramadan,
I actually thought, I'm going to try to do it.
I'm going to have a test drive.
And it became just a period of complete tranquility.
I was so relaxed, yeah I was hungry, I was tired,
but I was just completely relaxed and I was at peace
with myself, and looking back,
nothing else in this world can plug that gap.
I was at the London Central Mosque and I was looking
for a person, I said, "Well, how do I join this?
How do I do this?"
So I did.
I can't really describe the feeling of it.
As the years go on, the best feeling I can think of
to describe that moment is just gratitude,
that I was actually put down on the right path and that all
of the concerns that I've had,
they've not really materialized.
My biggest concern back then was how will my
parents take it, how will my friends take it,
how will everybody that I know,
including my roommate at the time, who was actually
one of the biggest opponents of me joining Islam,
how would he take it?
All of the friends that I've had previously who
found out about it, the real ones stayed.
The flaky ones that I was concerned about, they flaked off.
What I'm concerned about now is, what if my friends find out
that I'm doing this tractable work
or what would people think of me when I am spending
so much time in the mosque or, a lot of people ask,
"Well, why Islam?"
And I say, well, how can you deny something,
by way of religion, where you give and the more you give
the better you feel.
You find yourself in things where you think,
"I would have never done this five years ago."
Now that I've accepted Islam I have a clear structure,
I have a clear guideline, nine years ago when I accepted
Islam, there wasn't half of the things that we have now.
Every morning I wake up and there is some Islamic news
on my phone, because it's just set as an update.
If I have some free time I'll download a podcast
of an Islamic scholar.
And it's just fantastic.
There's so much knowledge around you,
all you have to do is focus on it.
Find yourself a person who you consider to be a friend,
open up to them, and tell them, "Look, I'm doing this,
"I'm very worried."
If you feel comfortable, say, "I'm afraid."
And believe me, they will come to your aid
more times than you can possibly think.
They will always be there to guide you and they will fight
your corner because they don't even realize that you have
these difficulties, they want to help you.
Remember, if you get somebody to accept Islam and you are
their door to Islam, you get so many good deeds,
I bet there will be people fighting your corner
every step of the way.